The Ethics of Star Trek

Amazon.com

At first glance, this blend of philosophical ethics and Star Trek may look like an outlandish Trekkie fantasy. In fact, it is a fascinating use of popular culture to engender sophisticated discussions of ethical theory. Obviously, The Ethics of Star Trek will be most interesting and accessible to fans of the show. But one need not be a guru in the cabala of Star Trek to appreciate and understand the witty instruction in ethics found in this volume. Authors Judith Barad--who is a professor of philosophy at Indiana State University--and Ed Robertson have crafted a charming introduction to ethical theory. As the authors point out, "One reason why Star Trek has endured from one generation to the next is that most of the stories themselves are indeed moral fables." And moral fables, particularly popular ones, are an excellent springboard into the deeper waters of philosophical ethics.

The book covers much more ground than is typically traveled in Ethics 101 courses. In the first of five sections, Barad and Robertson deal with the importance of religion and culture, as well as logic, in ethical reasoning. They go on to successively tackle virtue ethics, hedonism, Stoicism, Christian ethics, social contract theory, duty ethics, utilitarianism, and existential ethics--all in reference to the moral dilemmas enlivened by Star Trek. And while the topics' treatments are somewhat cursory, they are written with a conversational prose that beckons the reader to further study. Perhaps Jean-Luc Picard puts it best in the book's epigraph, "There is no greater challenge than the study of philosophy."

Book Description

For Trekkies everywhere, a fascinating look at the philosophy of Star Trek, from Kirk and Spock to Janeway and Seven of Nine

For four decades, Star Trek has been the obsession of millions of fans. But real Trekkies know that the show is more than just riveting entertainment. Its complex moral dilemmas present a view of the future that holds important truths for us in the present. Drawing on episodes from all four Star Trek generations, this unique book explores the ethics of the series in relation to the theories of the world's great philosophers. Questions about good and evil, right and wrong, power and corruption are discussed in language that,is both readable and compelling as the authors show, how the program has evolved over the years to address society's changing values. For this century and beyond, The Ethics of "Star Trek" is an intriguing look at a brilliantly imagined-world and what it can teach us about how to live.

Customer Reviews:

Boring.......2007-10-01

I needed this book for one of my classes at college. The book is a pretty hard read. It is so boring. I read 2 pages and I already want to put it down. If you want good facts and examples about ethics, it would be a great source for comparison.

An enjoyable indulgence.......2004-09-11

I found this book to a fun read because I have seen all of the episodes it discusses. If one has not seen all of the episodes used to make philosophical points I would imagine the reader would feel like an outsider listening in on a conversation of which they are not a part, relying heavily on the summaries and references to the show provided. However, one must experience the shows first to get the most out of this book. As for the stars, I use a pre-Vietnam war grading system as the book is a solid average and its grace stems from its own unique circumstances. Warning--one's own pride may prevent getting the most out of this book.

Plot summary does not equal analysis........2004-07-17

Plot summary does not equal analysis. This book falls into the trap of using plot summary to pad an otherwise shallow and poorly thought out book. The writing style waffles between flippant and unneccessarily reverent for Roddenberry. The Ethics of Star Trek would be a much stronger book if it approached the series in terms of the times they were made. Does the Orignal Series reflect the ethic debates of the late 1960s? Why did post cold war 1990s produce a series as dark as Deep Space Nine and what sorts of cultures and ethical questions are represented by the B'Jorans, Cardassians and the Dominion? How are these ethical questions brought to the screen? How does film editing, writing, music, etc. work to build up the ethical theses? How do these same elements work against the theses?

None of these topics are covered. Instead there are simplistic retellings of the classic foundations of ethics and logic. The chapter on the Cave, for instance, is laughable.

I am now just waiting to hear back from the person after me for an address. Then I'll get this book back into the mail.

Decent overview.......2003-03-11

This book takes various ethical theories, and then discusses Trek episodes which seem to support that theory. Of course, the recurring question, do the needs of the many outweight the needs of the one? is discussed, as are other ethical theories, from the ancient Greeks forward. Ultimately, the author comes up with a "central ethical theory" for each Star Trek series, based on the characters and what the majority of the stories seem to pivot around. This book is an overview, and didn't keep me wholly interested, but it's a decent read. Warning, it is about ethical theory, and not about modern issues (ie. abortion, religion, homosexuality, etc.) If this is what you are looking for, then you will be pleased, but if you're looking for a book about ethics and modern problems (which I probably was) then you may be a bit disappointed.

A fun read.......2003-01-23

I enjoyed this book because I didn't take it too seriously. It provides a fun way to pass a few hours while reading about the ethical nature of decisions made by a variety of Star Trek persona. As any Star Trek fan would admit, many episodes contradict one another to the point where it's difficult to pin ethical standards upon the various groups, Klingons, etc. As a result, no matter how enamored with Star Trek you may be, this should not act as a manual for living your life in an ethical fashion. However, it handily explains a variety of ethical principles as outlined by many famous philosophers of human-kind.

The Klingon Way: A Warrior's Guide (Star Trek: The Klingon Book of Virtues)

Average customer rating:

Klingons at the best!
irrestible
Klingons are misunderstood
Enjoyable for any Trek fan, Klingon expert or not.

The Klingon Way: A Warrior's Guide (Star Trek: The Klingon Book of Virtues)
Marc Okrand
Manufacturer: Star Trek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Klingon Hamlet

ASIN: 0671537555

Amazon.com

Written in both English and Klingon, this handbook is an indispensible guide to understanding those lovable ruffians from the Star Trek universe. Includes proverbs, quotes, and pictures from some of the greatest Klingon philosophers and warriors (including the great Klingon writer William Shakespeare). Remember: rut ylHmey ghom Hoch.

Customer Reviews:

Klingons at the best!.......2002-09-13

This is the ultimate Klingon book! It brilliantly weaves the tapestry of Star Trek's Klingon history, through its publication date in May of 1996. It is written both in English & Klingon. The photos are black & white. Each page contains a quote in both languages and a detailed explanation of the Klingon terminology. If you have not picked this up for your Star Trek collection, let me quote a Klingon phrase for you, "qoH vuvbe' SuS" ("The wind does not respect a fool"). If you can still find a copy of this, enjoy it.

irrestible.......2000-07-07

Astounding. This is one of the books a Klingon fan would love to read. Trust me, you'll be intrigued.

The Klingon proverbs and their meanings in the book will help us understand Klingon culture and society.

Klingons are misunderstood.......2000-02-24

If I had to be reincarnated, I would be reincarnated as a Klingon. Even though Klingons take no prisoners, they have a few smooth edges. Some how I do think that the whole Klingon race and Klingons in general are misunderstood. This book gives some virtues and good says that can be applied today. My favorite saying is "Revenge is a dish best served cold." and this saying can apply to anybody, even ex-fiances.

Enjoyable for any Trek fan, Klingon expert or not........1996-08-02

In the quest for more and more spin offs in the Star Trek market, this book stands out. Rather than another novel, or nitpicking reference volume culled from the shows - this presents authentic alien literature: the proverbs of the Warrior Race!

Providing insight into tlhIngan (thats Klingon: think Bejing versus Peking. The standard English term is a corruption of the correct pronounciation, just as the old name for China's capital city was) culture, this book cleverly draws from the film and video incarnations for pithy Klingon phrases. The author (compiler), Marc Okrand created the language and clearly knows his Trek.

Illustrating almost every proverb is a relevant black and white. The proverbs are presented in tlhIngan Hol and DIvI' Hol (Klingon and English), along with a paragraph or two discussing the cultural background, and occasional grammatical tips.

The book is well organized, so that you don't really NEED the The Klingon Dictionary (also by Okrand), the authorative guide on the language. However, it makes a great companion to it. Someone seeking to learn and use the language would do well to buy both books and use The Klingon Way as a workbook of phrases to study with the vocabulary and grammar provided by the Klingon Dictionary.

Amazon.com

In this compilation of early-American documents, formerly published as Our Sacred Honor, the most widely known touter of "virtues" in the United States enlists Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and other "founding fathers" (along with Abigail Adams) to celebrate principles such as piety, justice, and patriotism. Bennett's editorializing is kept to a minimum, however, and does not overly impede this rich stream of primary documents from the Revolutionary War and the formation of the American government.

Book Description

INSPIRATION AND INSTRUCTION FROM AMERICA'S FOUNDERS

In Philadelphia, on a hot July day in 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence made pledge to one another -- the pledge of "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." That pledge has been redeemed many times in the centuries since, but the nation they founded has never failed to profit from their deeds...and their words.

In The Spirit of America, William J. Bennett, editor of the New York Times bestseller The Book of Virtues, has collected the best that has been taught and said by and about the men and women who founded America. And what a group they are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John and Abigail Adams, and many more. Here are the stories, essays, letters, and poetry they left behind...the timeless legacy they have bequeathed to every generation of Americans. Here are Thomas Jefferson on Piety, James Madison on Justice, and Patrick Henry on Patriotism. Here are Abigail Adams on Love, Benjamin Franklin on Frugality, and George Washington on Friendship. Here are the lyrics to "Yankee Doodle," Longfellow's celebration of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the Declaration of Independence. Here are the stories of the Liberty Bell, Washington at Valley Forge, and Nathan Hale. Here are Emerson's "Concord Hymn," with "the shot heard round the world," and Poor Richard's Almanack.

The stories, songs, letters, and speeches collected in The Spirit of America are an inspiring celebration of the American spirit, a treasury of the ideals that made America great and continue to do so two centuries later.

Customer Reviews:

The founders, in their own words.......2004-03-30

Bennett has combed the letters, papers, speeches, etc. of America's founders and collected them in a manageable form. This collection provides considerable insight into the founders' thought process.

Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Rush, Franklin, Hamilton: they're all here and more. Learn what they thought about one another. Find out how they really felt about freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, free speech, slavery, and political institutions. Gain respect and appreciation for the original values on which America was founded.

Bennett often interjects his editorial among the original documents. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes not.

You should know this book has a conservative tone. It is for historians to decide whether this tone is Bennett's bias or the founders' attitudes.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Army Doctrine and Training Bulletin, published by Canadian Army Journal on June 22, 2002. The length of the article is 4012 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The ethics of star trek?
Author: James McKay
Publication: The Army Doctrine and Training Bulletin (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2002
Publisher: Canadian Army Journal
Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Page: 76

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

Ethics of Star Trek
Judith A Barad
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

This volume in our new series features 29 compositions by Claude Debussy, including such famous pieces as 'Clair de Lune,' 'Reverie,' 'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,' 'Golliwogg's Cake Walk,' and others. It includes pieces from the French master's wealth of piano compositions, including the 'Arabesques,' PETITE SUITE, CHILDREN'S CORNER SUITE, both books of 'Preludes,' and individual pieces. A wide variety of music from the French impressionistic genius! 29 titles on 160 pages.

Customer Reviews:

what a binding.............2005-01-21

I'm studying music at university in hamilton ontario..
at the H.B.A level

well here is my opinion on this score....
the binding on this edition is lousy
it is simply glued in... and the glue is very cheap and the pages fall right out...
i had to spend an additional $10 to get the book put into a spiral binding..

it's not worth it... dover editions have sewn in bindings...

the selections in this edition are good, but it is close enough urtext so you're definitely on your own when it comes to fingering the right notes... especially the pieces like passapied.
the notation is an accurate size but dover is better since it is easier to read at the keyboard...

also dover editions usually are reprints of better more longlasting editions that have excellent points for page turning from my personal performing perspective, don't buy this get the dover......

it's cheaper and better....... i wish i knew about dover editions before i bought this... p.s. if you enjoy music and theoretical topics i highly recommend [...]

Book Description

These clearly and cleverly presented mathematical recreations of paradoxes and paperfolding, Moebius variations and mnemonics both ancient and modern delight and perplex while demonstating principles of logic, probability, geometry, and other mathematical fields.

"A classic."—Andrew Rothery, Times Education Supplement

"Martin Gardner has turned a trick as neat as any in the book itself. He has selected a group of diversions which are not only entertaining but mathematically meaningful as well. The result is a work which is rewarding on almost every level of mathematical achievement."—Miriam Hecht, Iscripta Mathematica

Customer Reviews:

Simply excellent.......2004-07-09

This book is worth getting if only to find out how to make a hexaflexagon. The problems in it are truly absorbing.

Reeks of Awesomeness!.......2001-11-10

After a long afternoon of studying ordinary differential equations, computer science, and japanese, it is great to find a book like this that sucks you right in, absorbs your brain for a couple of hours, and then inspires you to cut, paste, & fold paper. What you see absolutely reeks of awesomeness. I love Martin Gardner! (Last month's reading, Knotted Doughnuts, was equally fun!)

A delight for young and old.......2001-02-01

Martin Gardners column "Mathematical Games" was in the magazine "Scientific American" for so long that he was more than an institution. This was the first of his books to take some of the ideas from the many columns and present them in volume format.

I first came across it in a British edition titled "Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions" in my early teens. From memory it took me around three weeks and two rolls of adding machine tape to finish with the hexaflexagons (don't ask, just buy the book) in the first chapter.

Mr Gardner deserves his reputation as a writer who can simplify complex subjects without talking down to the audience and this is well demonstrated in this volume. Some of the later chapters deal with parts of probability and game theory that skirt around some complex maths while someone with little mathematical ability (such as myself) finds it easy to follow along. The prose is light and easily read while the subject matter is entertaining.

I would recommend this book for someone mathematically inclined in their early teens or anyone in their mid teens or later. If you have a child capable of mathematical and/or logical thought who is getting turned off mathematics by the rigors and dullness of school then this volume may well turn the trick - I know it was influential in convincing me that it was my schooling and not my mind that had ruined my maths ability. I give it only four stars as it is now starting to show its age, otherwise it would have five.

Hexaflexagons and Mathematical diversions.......2000-06-16

This book is an amazing one and it is definetly recommended to the people who like math puzzles, games, or thought challenges. Also it is a great book to distract yourself. It is a book that you would like to keep in your shelf. Martin Gardner is a great writer and has other great books on many other different mathematical puzzles.

Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games

Average customer rating:

Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games
Martin Gardner
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP48C2

Customer Reviews:

By all means, read it in a public place.......2007-05-23

What can I possibly add to what has been said by the other reviewers? This book is short in length and long in content. *EVERYBODY* whom I know and who has read the book has claimed to have laughed out loud while reading it in a public place. That's 5 people, myself included. Years after reading it, I still recall with great amusement the stories about James' alter ego, the Flash of Lightning. And although this is a book about James, it also is a subtle homage to his mother, or at least it read that way to me. Such is James' command of language, he can turn his experiences into everyone's experiences, even if you haven't lived through similar situations. A wonderful read.

Heroic recollection of an Australian childhood .......2004-10-25

"Unreliable Memoirs" is Clive James' description of his upbringing in a Sydney suburb lasting up to the time of his university education. I was expecting it to be funny but wasn't quite prepared for the raw emotion and literary skill displayed on virtually every page.

To me this is the most impressive of James' autobiographical writing. He has a gift for describing childhood and a kind of relentless honesty which is hilarious and provides something of a turbulent rollercoaster ride for the reader, as he describes the trauma of being a single child to a single parent in the aftermath of the Second World War.

I felt a little left behind by many of the historical and literary references James makes but this is more than made up for by the relish with which he uses the English language. For example, he describes a friend's mother giving him buttered bread covered with hundreds and thousands as like "eating a slice of powdered rainbow".

"Unreliable Memoirs" made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end - I wish I had read it years ago.

Don't read while drinking anything hot.......2004-07-18

One of the funniest books you'll ever read. Especially recommended for anyone who has ever been a kid, Australian, in love, in lust, in trouble, at university or has had a head that sticks out at the back.

old age . I never thought the cornflakes would leave me ........2002-10-16

For those of you who have visited Australia in recent years , it may come as a shock to you that Clive James was the man who discoverd it . Jumping from captain Cooks ship ,when the hostile crew had threatened to eat him if he risked another witism . He discovered that the land was free from parking meters . " Well boil mi billy can , cobbers , this is the place for me " . So young clive tried his hand at acting, but was disillusioned ,when James coburn was cast as the aussie in the great escape . " He sounds more real than you Clive " . "Strewth i'll have a lash at journalism " . The rest is history . A raft back to blighty . A year as an assistant to clark kent , then unexpected fame as a latex puppet on spitting image . Its all here the unreliable memoirs, of the boy from Melbourne ,The land bought by Batman .

Don't read this in a public place!.......2000-03-31

This would have to be the best offering from Clive James that I have read. His acerbic wit makes for great reading. I found this text on a bookshelf in a beach holiday house and was immediately captivated. I lost count of the amount of times that I not only laughed out loud, I snorted with appreciation and had to wipe tears from my eyes (much to the consternation of those around me) He captures the innocence of childhood with fleeting glimpses of maturity like no one has before, proving that he is not just a television presenter but a Rhodes Scholar to boot. If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. It would be a shame to tell you more because this is a book that just has to be read to be believed!

Average customer rating:

damn funny.
A CLEVER BOY
Very funny and clever!

Falling Towards England (Picador Books)
Clive James
Manufacturer: Pan Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Unreliable Memoirs (Picador Books)
May Week Was In June
Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts
North Face of Soho
Clive James' Reliable Essays: The Best Of Clive James

ASIN: 0330294377

Customer Reviews:

damn funny........2005-01-14

If you're a tortured artist, a sucker for wit, a would-be critic, a bit of loser when it comes to attractive women, Do you have a passion for bohemian culture, want to travel around europe? Do you have a hard time trying to hold down menial jobs? Have you got a university education? Well, then "Falling towards england" is your book. If you've watched Clive in "post-cards", and remember his hillarious deadpan voice, you'll laugh out loud as you read his hard-to-put down 2nd installment within his "unreliable memoirs" series. If you're a bit of comedian and a bit of a geek at uni, then reading this book will help relieve the pain a little bit as James' details countless romantically inept experiences which he includes in what he calls "Another chapeter in the history of what never happened". pure gold.

* keep an eye out for the talking book version. listening to it is damn funny.

A CLEVER BOY.......2004-07-15

Clive James should be 65 by now, if the arithmetic of the years works in the same way for him as for me. This volume of his memoirs, the second, was issued in 1985, but presumably it calls on diaries kept in his 20's, the period the book covers, so one can't really gauge how it reflects his maturation.

His greatest strength and his main weakness are one and the same thing. He produces some brilliant one-liners, but so many of them, and so similar in style, that they become just a little wearisome over the length of even a shortish book. I became familiar with him first as the BBC film pundit and then as the television critic of The Observer on Sundays. Within the scale of a half-hour programme or a Sunday review he was absolutely unsurpassable for wit and originality. He did various other tv programmes over the years, and I remember in particular a series on a tour he had made in eastern Europe, at the time still the Evil Empire of fond memory. There was a clip of a rock band consisting of various balding 40ish gents in dull suits, on which James commented in his flat Australian accent `They don't just look like secret policemen, they sing like secret policemen'. Does that have you rolling in the aisles? It did me. It still does, and this book rarely goes two pages in succession without something of the kind. As a writer of English he is a consummate workman on his own terms. The tone is studiously light and informal, but the expression is never careless or cheap. Indeed his other fault as a stylist is a kind of demotic pretentiousness. The relaxed and plain-Joe paragraphs are liberally larded with obscure literary and cultural allusions, and it would serve him right if some readers find this patronising. What do you make of a chapter-heading `Solvitur acris James', for instance? I happen to recognise the reference to the ode of Horace starting `Solvitur acris hiems' (Sharp winter melts) but not only will it totally escape many, perhaps most, it doesn't have all that much point anyway in its context.

The period narrated is from his arrival in England in 1962 until just before he went up to Cambridge. As a document of an impoverished, chaotic, Hogarthian gin-lane existence it is simply brilliant. It would be hard to describe the feel of his account as precisely introspective - Rabelaisian might be nearer the mark. In saying that, I begin to suspect that James's manner is beginning to infect me too - the style of Rabelais is nothing like what you might expect from its English dictionary definition or the common usage of the word insofar as it has a common usage. Towards the end I thought I detected a distinctly deeper tone. I wonder what he could really do if he really tried.

Very funny and clever!.......1997-12-30

This is one of a series of autobiographical books from Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs and May Week Was in June being the others - which take Clive from his boyhood in Australia to the hallowed halls of Cambridge University. Clive has a clever, satirical and self-deprecating style. The humor is sly, very personal, and tends to creep up on you. It helps if you have heard him speak and can imagine the text in his rhythmic, expressive voice. The book, although written from the vantage point of Clive's current, and considerable, fame as a television presenter and journalist, does not endow Clive with any more talent than he had at that time. In fact you begin to wonder how he would ever make his mark, let alone a living. The characters he introduces are rich and colorful, presented honestly, to be liked or hated, much as Clive did. The pace is easy and undemanding, it's a gentle book, but not wimpy, rather it is very much in the style of the author himself. I highly recommend reading the books in sequence - Unreliable Memoirs is first - but if not possible, this one is a great place to start to appreciate Clive's work.

Average customer rating:

Reliable James
Disappointed

North Face of Soho

Manufacturer: Macmillan Audio Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1405092653

Customer Reviews:

Reliable James.......2007-02-27

It's a decade since I read the first instalment of these Memoirs but the contrast effect is strong nevertheless. I remember the first book was funny and well written but I don't remember it having much point. In fact that was the point: "...someone who had done nothing writing a book about how he had prepared himself for not doing it...". Reading the fourth volume is like being given sound advice from a much admired uncle: try to learn from your mistakes so you can do better next time. James illustrates this theme by stuffing up over and over again while his career somehow manages to assemble itself around him. Eventually he even manages to learn from his mistakes. There are dull moments, or at least moments that are dull if you neglected to have a literary career in London during the 1970s, but these are easy to plough through because you know it won't be long before Martin Amis walks into the next pub. On the whole I smiled a lot. Sometimes I laughed loud enough to frighten the chooks, and I cried on the last page right on cue. One thing I didn't do was put it down.

Disappointed.......2006-12-07

I approached the book with anticipation, having enjoyed "Unreliable Memoirs" (Volume One).This latest volume, which brings us up to James' post-Cambridge early career, is unbelievably tedious: solipsistic, self-absorbed, full of endless references to literary editors, TV producers, buddies from the London literary world - most of whom no-one has ever heard of, though the big names, like Martin Amis, get grovelling accolades. James tries to justify his frantic, over-achieving persona by suggesting that he is presenting a cautionary tale from which the willing reader can learn. Don't believe it. The book is unutterably boring, lacking the verbal wit we once enjoyed from this former media celebrity. He should have quit while he was ahead with the fatherless little boy from Kogarah riding his billycart down that hill.

Average customer rating:

Glued to the Box (Picador Books)
Clive James
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0330281747

Average customer rating:

Gods and Monsters: The Shooting Script
Bill Condon , Ian McKellen , and Clive Barker
Manufacturer: Newmarket Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1557044279

Book Description

Now published for the first time, the Oscar®-winning script for the film starring Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, and Lynn Redgrave—in the Newmarket Shooting Script® series format, with new introductions written especially for this edition.

This critically acclaimed film was chosen by Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, Rolling Stone, USA Today, The Washington Post, and more than 100 other newspapers and magazines as one of the Ten Best Films of 1998. Based on the novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram, the film, written and directed by Bill Condon, garnered major prizes for Condon, Ian McKellen, and Lynn Redgrave.

In the acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script® series, this volume includes a facsimile of the script, a foreword by Clive Barker about his talks with Condon on how to bring cinematic life to James Whale's story, an introduction by Ian McKellen, and complete cast and crew credits. Also included is a portfolio of photographs by Anne Fishbein chosen especially by Condon for this book. 25 b/w photos.

The Crystal Bucket
Average customer rating:

Brilliant

The Crystal Bucket
Clive James
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0224018906

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant.......2007-07-26

Forget Clive James the TV presenter (in the UK). This is what he is best at doing. A fabulous volume of TV criticisms from the British Newspaper The Observer in the 70's.
There is stuff in here that will make you cry with laughter, its so funny. One moment he's ripping apart the original Superstars TV series, and then its Grandstand or Ski Sunday (both sports programs on British TV).
Its not all funny stuff there are serious subjects as well and James writes well about these.
However, its the funny stuff that sticks with you, and you can go back and re-read these again and again and they are still laugh out-loud funny.

The Crystal Bucket, Television Criticism from the Observer, 1976-79

Average customer rating:

The Crystal Bucket, Television Criticism from the Observer, 1976-79
Clive James
Manufacturer: London: Jonathan Cape, 1981
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LVJ4B4

Average customer rating:

Exceptional

The Crystal Bucket: Television Criticism from the 'Observer', 1976-79
Clive James
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOM8T8

Customer Reviews:

Exceptional.......2007-07-16

When visiting the UK in summer 1982, almost everywhere we went, someone was reading The Crystal Bucket. Store clerks, at ticket windows, passengers on trains, everyone everywhere. So I bought a copy, and it was worth it. Witty, intellectual, observant, all that stuff, and fun to read too.

THE CTYSTAL BUCKET: TELEVISION CRITICISM FROM THE OBSERVER 1976-79

Average customer rating:

THE CTYSTAL BUCKET: TELEVISION CRITICISM FROM THE OBSERVER 1976-79
CLIVE JAMES
Manufacturer: JONATHAN CAPE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RZCH4U

Average customer rating:

Classic Reviews

Visions Before Midnight
Clive James
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0224013866

Customer Reviews:

Classic Reviews.......2007-08-28

You may have to be of a certain age or nationality to appreciate this, because if you never watched Softly Softly (a British TV Cop show from the early 1970's) or heard David Coleman or Harry Carpenter (both BBC Sports Commentators), then a book of TV reviews may be a struggle.

However James does it with such style, panache, intelligence and above all wit, that you'll probably still love it anyway.
Its very very funny and if you are of the appropriate age you will love James's shredding of BBC sports commentators - Frank Bough "Harry Commentator is your carpenter"!
Absolutely priceless stuff, and it can be re-read over and over its that good.

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